Let The Engines Roar: by Anthony Baker

Yesterday at the Brickyard 400, driver Bubba Wallace was able to end a 100 race winless drought dating back to fall Kansas 2022 and solidify a spot in the NASCAR playoffs. It was a feel good story for all and a long time coming for Wallace who was sitting on the bubble coming into the race. This win makes Bubba the 13th different winner this season and it came at the right time as with now 4 races left until the playoffs, he can breathe easier knowing that he’s locked in. However for 23XI teammate Tyler Reddick, while he is 138 points above the cut line…..there still is an opportunity for him to miss the playoffs. There’s 4 races left (Iowa, The Glen, Richmond, and Daytona) that can all very well give us a new winner that can give us a possible 17 winners before the playoffs start. Reddick is also 71 points behind regular season point leader Chase Elliot, which is also important because the regular season champion gets an automatic playoff spot and despite a 29th place fin...

In one of the biggest wild card races of the year, the Chicago Street course produced an exciting event. This was the first time in the 3 year history of the Chicago street weekend that their was no rain to delay any of the events. A earlier start time helped to escape the rain this time around for the event and we finally got to see the full 75 laps. This was the 2nd race of the in season tournament and that also delivered an interesting battle. Also it’s not a NASCAR race without controversy so let’s get into it. The Winners With this being the only street race on the NASCAR schedule and Shane Van Gisbergen having street racing in his background, this race was pretty much his to lose as he pretty much has set the tone as the man to beat ever since the inaugural event back in 2023. The New Zealander would win the race not only sweeping the race weekend as he won the xfinity race on Saturday, but also winning his 2nd race of the year (first was Mexico City) launching him up to a 5th pl...

In the 2010s, we saw Dodge leave NASCAR all together shortening the amount of race manufacturers in the sport from 4 to 3. Many fans missed Dodge and NASCAR spent a lot of time teasing at a new manufacturer. It looks like Sunday will mark the end of the teasing and turn into a reality. Sunday prior to Firecracker Casino 400 at Michigan, NASCAR will have a special announcement to share with the public. There have been a few leaks of a RAM Craftsman Truck that’s flooded newsfeeds that lead many to believe that the automaker is announcing a return to NASCAR. RAM also made a tweet earlier in the week announcing an announcement for Sunday as well at the same time. This would be a 4th manufacturer in the sport and the first manufacturer to enter the sport since Toyota did in 2004. Details on who the driver and team would be are still unclear but a few rumors point to YouTube star Garrett Mitchell aka Cleetus McFarland. Dodge previously had a short stint in NASCAR that was announced in 1999 w...

Yesterdays race at Kansas Speedway was suppose to be a breath of fresh air as the race track has been looked at as one of the better tracks or maybe even the best track in the Next Gen era. The car races well, there’s multiple grooves, the tires wear decently and there’s strategy at times. The restarts can be chaotic which leads to cautions breed cautions moments as well so there’s something honestly for every fan to enjoy. However at least on social media, the discourse wasn’t too thrilled about the race. The discourse really didn’t like the fact that it didn’t seem like much passing towards the front of the field as they would have liked which is understandable, but also a lot of concern about the grandstands which also had people wondering if Kansas should go to one race instead of 2. This is also the 4th race in a row where the discourse hasn’t been pleased about the Cup series product as of late. Let’s take a closer look. Ever since the Next Gen car debuted in 2022 the racing on t...

Nascar heads to thunder valley this weekend as it’s time for the Food City 500, which is a 500 lap race around the half mile concrete oval known as Bristol Motor Speedway or otherwise known as the last great Colosseum. It’s going to be a cool weekend as temperatures are expected to be in the 60s but questions remain about how the tire will react this time around. Let’s get into it. This is just the 2nd spring race in the next gen cars and I say this because I believe that was one reason as to why tire wear was so insane last spring along with the cold temps. With now a year of spring data and warmer temperatures I don’t believe that we will see the tire fall off at the rate that we saw last year. I do think there will be some wear later into a long run that falls off significantly. With the traction compound I thing track position will be important early and the bottom line will be the preferred line unless we see some tire saving mode. I expect this race to be a ra...

The heavy difference between the Saturday race and the Sunday race at martinsville speedway must be studied. There was complete chaos on Saturday especially in the later stages of the race, but on Sunday the race was quite tame. While it must be noted that racing in the cup series at this track took a hit compared to the gen 6, but the racing compared to the xfinity series is still way less chaotic. So the Xfinity series raced at martinsville speedway in 2006, but after that race they didn’t return for 14 years. Once they returned it was nothing but chaos.Since their return to the paper clip, the racing has provided quite a bit of controversy including the most recent race this weekend. This is a stark difference from how the cup series races have been as there has been less passing but less wrecks as well. The Xfinity series has time and time again had races at the track start off as racing and ending in slam and run racing. It showed even more true this past Saturday as several d...